The More You Ignore Me The Closer I Get
by Houddy
Summary: A series of short stories, most likely, that will explore the dance that is going on between House and Cuddy
1. Make a Wish

6 July, 2007

**THE MORE YOU IGNORE ME, THE CLOSER I GET**

**MAKE A WISH**

"Call Make-a-Wish." Cuddy closed her bedroom door.

House stared at it in frustration, then turned and left. "Call Make-a-Wish? Ha." House could always count on Cuddy for a witty comeback. But if she thought that she'd gotten the last word, she was sadly mistaken.

The next day House sat at his computer, staring at the screen. "Dr. House?" Young, pretty Allison Cameron came in.

"Not now. I'm busy." House looked up briefly. He wouldn't need to call Make-A-Wish to get in her pants, but, nah. Too many complications, besides, it just wasn't as much fun without the chase.

"But..."

"Go!" House started typing, then deleted what he'd written. He glanced up as Dr. Cameron walked out. "She'd be a lot easier." He said to the empty room. "She's not Partypants." The room replied in his voice.

He turned back to his computer and began typing furiously. Inspiration had struck.

A few days later, Dr. Lisa Cuddy came storming into his office. "What is this?"

"Looks like a letter." House shrugged.

"It is a letter. From you." She waved it around. "To the Make-A-Wish Foundation."

"Then what are you doing with it?" House grinned. "Stealing mail is a federal offence. I could have you arrested."

"Try it." She dared.

"You, in handcuffs..." House quickly picked up the phone. She stopped him, as he knew she would.

"Dear Make-A-Wish,

"My name is Gregory House. I am a forty-seven year old jerk with a ten year old pain problem and I am just DYING to get into my bosses pants. She says I behave like a twelve year old, so I think I qualify as a Make-A-Wish kid." Cuddy stopped, waiting for a response.

"Go on." House leaned forward, eager to hear more.

"You see, ten years ago, my boss cut out a huge chunk of my thigh muscle.." she stopped reading and looked up at him. "Huge chunk? Huge? It was minor, hardly noticeable if you'd taken proper care of it during the healing process. But nooooooo, you're the great and powerful Gregory House and you don't do anything you're supposed to do."

"I never knew you thought of me as great and powerful." House leaned back with a rather healthy sense of pride.

Cuddy sighed sharply. She went back to reading. "...thigh muscle, and now I have to limp around after her like a gimpy puppy. She takes great joy in making me jump through hoops for her sadistic entertain...House, I do NOT make you jump thr..."

"You made me speak at that conference last week."

"That's part of you job House."

"You make me do Clinic Duty."

"Job."

"You drop things and make me bend over..."

"That's what you do to Cameron." Cuddy corrected.

"Oh, right. Well, I remember hoops. There have definitely been hoops."

Cuddy bit her lip to stop from laughing. "...I pleasured her once, and she never returned the favor." At this she laughed. "I'm pretty sure you got a great deal of pleasure that night as well House. So don't try to pull this 'you did it all for me' act."

"You forced me to service you. It's in my contract."

"No it's not."

"It's unwritten."

"The unwritten rule in your contract says you have to service me?"

"See. You admit it."

"I admit nothing!" She tossed the letter on his desk. "I don't care if you petition the Federal Courts. I'm not sleeping with you again House."

House picked up the letter, and read it to himself. "Oh, you didn't read the best bit." He held it out to her, his finger pointing to the best bit.

Cuddy leaned over, read what it said and blushed. "No, I didn't."

House cleared his throat and began to read. "So, what I want to ask is that you fulfill a dying man's dream, to once again cup those gentile breasts in my arthritic hands, to once more squeeze that sweet ass..."

"I let you squeeze my sweet ass the other night House. Consider your wish granted."

"No. That's only part of the wish." He tried to sneak a peek at her ass. "A LARGE part, granted, but still only a part of what I wish for."

"Fine, you want to cup my, what was it?"

"Gentle."

"Gentle. You want to cup my gentle breasts?"

"Well, yeah, since you asked." House stood up, one hand extended. Cuddy took a step back.

"No way!"

"There's more." House looked back at his letter.

"I'm sure there is. Why don't you call one of your ladies of the night? Dress her up in a lab coat. You can borrow one from the closet for all I care. Just leave me alone."

"You say that now..." House made an ah ha kind of face.

"I say that always." Cuddy headed out the door.


	2. What Could Have Been

I was bored and going through my old stories. There are quite a few I haven't posted here, and I found two that fit this particular anthology, so I figured what the hell. (I'm bored. Work is very quiet).

As a reminder, cause it's been a while, this is not meant to be read as an ongoing story, but rather a seriesof short stories, each meant to delve into a different aspect of Huddy. I hope you enjoy.

* * *

**WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN**

-1-

House walked out of the office, a smile on his face. It had been an interesting few days. Why was everyone suddenly so concerned with his love life? He would have loved to be a fly on the wall of Cuddy's office right now. There was no way Stacy was just going to pretend he hadn't said what he'd said. No way. He continued down the hall, sure he would get all the juicy details later.

"What did happen between you two?" Stacy had taken the bait House laid out for her. The trouble with House was you could never tell when he was being serious, and when he was yanking your chain. It was only Cuddy's hint of a smile that caused Stacy to search for some grain of truth in his implication.

"Nothing. We're friends, we work together." Cuddy was quick to remove the smile, but she knew Stacy had seen it. It was going to take a lot of backpedaling to get Stacy off the scent.

"Just friends?" Stacy didn't sound convinced. "Come on, Lisa, you can tell me. We can compare notes."

"There's nothing to tell." With that, Cuddy moved the topic to legal matters.

-2-

"Come on House, something's going on." Wilson was practically begging for the dirt now.

"Something is always going on. People are getting sick, doctors are healing them. Hey, you're a doctor. Shouldn't you be off healing the sick or something?" House gave him a pointed look that said case closed.

Wilson didn't look back, and therefore didn't think the case was closed. "You two argue like an old married couple."

"You caught us. We're married." House threw up his hands in surrender.

"Really?" For just a moment, Wilson bought it, then he remembered who he was talking to. "Seriously House, what's going on?"

"If something were going on, and I told you, it would be all over the hospital by the end of the day."

"No it wouldn't." Wilson sulked as they walked along the hallway in silence. Why did everyone think he was such a gossip?

-3-

"But he was going through her underwear drawer."

"House was just being House." Foreman tried concentrating on his work.

"House went through Cuddy's underwear drawer?" Cameron was both jealous and disgusted. Why hadn't House gone through her underwear drawer? Were Cuddy's underwear that much more interesting than hers?

"He went over that house with a fine toothed comb." Chase was excited to have someone new to gossip with. "I think he likes her."

"He doesn't like her." Foreman was still pretending to do his work by leaning over some slides.

"Foreman's right." At least Cameron hoped he was. "There is nothing going on between them."

"How do you know?" Chase was taking on that pouty air he got when the others started ganging up on him.

"She told me." Cameron said with matter of fact pride.

"You asked Cuddy if she had a thing for House?" Foreman was surprised. Cameron always seemed a bit intimidated by Cuddy.

"Not exactly. I asked her if she knew him back in Michigan."

"Did she say no?" Foreman was suddenly more interested in the conversation. He put the slides aside and turned to face the group.

"Not exactly."

"Aha!" Chase said excitedly.

"She said she had heard of him." Cameron was trying hard to deny Cuddy's lack of denial.

"What's that mean?" Chase was left scratching his head.

"It means she didn't want Cameron to know that she knew House." Foreman read between the lines.

"No." Cameron shot out defensively. "It means she only knew of him. She said he was a legend in school. They might have passed in the halls or something, but that's it."

"Right." Foreman shook his head slowly.

-4-

Cuddy walked toward the bedroom door with a cup of tea in her hands. It had been a very long day. All she wanted to do was curl up in bed, pull up the covers and go to sleep. Maybe she could find some peace in her dreams.

She walked into the bedroom, the thought that House had been there earlier, going through her belongings with Foreman and Chase gave her a rather creepy feeling. The bedspread was rumpled. Someone had messed with it.

She put the cup down, and pulled down the covers. She was so ready for sleep that at first she didn't notice that there was something on her pillow. She put her head down and felt a piece of paper crumple under it. She pulled the paper out, and opened it.

Wrapped inside the piece of paper was a small, crumpled up picture and a note. The note read "To the good old days." The picture was from one of those instant photo booths. And it was of a young House and an even younger Cuddy making out in one of those instant photo booths.

Lisa Cuddy drifted off to sleep that night to dream of her college days, watching House play on the lacrosse team, cheering him on from the bleachers, long nights of studying, the winter formal, days she longed to return to, but knew would never come again.

-5-

House walked around his cluttered apartment. Insomnia had struck again. He wondered if Cuddy had gone to bed yet, had she seen the surprise he'd left her. He had carried that picture around in his wallet for years. It was the sort of thing you forgot you even had, but somehow kept without even knowing it.

He sat down at his piano and started tapping out his old school song. "Hail to the victors valiant, Hail to the conquering heroes, Hail! Hail to Michigan, the champions of the West!" Maybe, just maybe he could go back to his school days, when he was the conquering hero, and Lisa was by his side.

Maybe, if he had stayed in Michigan, maybe if he had been ready to commit to a serious relationship, maybe…he drifted off to sleep, wondering what could have been, and what would never be.

4


	3. Missed Opportunity

**17 January 2007**

**MISSED OPPORTUNITY**

Cuddy heard a knock on the door. She wiped the sleep from her eyes and looked at the clock beside her bed. It was 2:00AM. There was only one person she could think of who would show up on her doorstep at two in the morning, and only one reason he would.

She slipped her robe on and headed for the door, grabbing a small bottle of pills along the way. She opened the bottle before opening the door, and when she finally did swing open the door, she thrust her hand out in front of her.

House looked down at her closed fist, then pushed it aside and walked in. "What's that?" He removed his coat and tossed it on the couch.

"Your pills. That's what you came for, take them and go home." She was too tired to play his games. She groaned when she watched him sit down, making himself comfortable and propping his feet up on her coffee table.

She pushed his legs off her table as she pushed past him and sat down. Again she tried handing him the pills. This time he took them and gulped them down easily. "You know, if you'd just reinstate my prescription I wouldn't have to wake you up in the middle of the night." He looked at her satin robe, which was coming open around the chest area. "Not that I mind." He grinned lasciviously.

Cuddy slowly adjusted her robe. She didn't know why she was bothering. "What happened in Atlantic City?"

"Are you sure you want to know?"

"Yes." She leaned her head back on the couch. She just wanted to get back to sleep, but her sleep had been restless, worrying about House's part in Vegetative State Guy's death. With Detective Tritter sniffing around, even an implication that House had anything to do with the suicide could be the nail in House's coffin.

"He hung himself."

"And you had nothing to do with it?" At the hospital she had readily accepted this explanation, but her own natural curiosity, and concern for House wanted to know more.

"Define nothing?" House had a bit of a devilish grin on his face. He was the type of man who would be proud to have manipulated someone into suicide.

"House!" She was scared now. If Tritter found out…

"I was not there. Vegetative State Guy made the decision all on his own."

"Let me guess, you and Wilson were waiting out in the hall?" Cuddy was still skeptical, but she was willing to accept whatever he told her.

"How'd you know? Did you have us followed?"

"No, but you're lucky Tritter didn't. That man is out to get you." She was struggling to keep her eyes open.

"That man is full of hot air." House watched her fight off sleep. She looked older than usual. It must be the pregnancy. "Now that you're pregnant, you really should get more sleep."

Rage flashed in her eyes for only a moment. It gave way to a deep sadness. "I'm not pregnant House."

"Well, you look like hell." He brushed a little piece of hair out of her face. He didn't even realize he was doing it until it was too late. He quickly dropped his hand and looked away.

"I'm worried about you, you idiot!" Sometimes he was the most oblivious man in the world.

"Don't. I can handle Tritter."

"It's the fact that you think you can that has me worried. Give me a reason to not worry about you House?" She was pleading with him.

"I was not in that room when he killed himself. If Tritter goes down there to question people, he will find out that Wilson was trying to proposition a married woman, and that he called over to the tall guy with the cane, whom he called House."

"Oh, tell me you didn't." She wasn't liking the sound of this. "What if Tritter shows someone your picture? It's not going to take him long to figure out that you were creating an alibi. That just makes you look more suspicious."

"People don't see me, they see the cane. If he shows them my picture, they won't recognize me, but when he tells them about a guy with a cane, they'll say, yeah, that's him."

"Brilliant! And if he doesn't mention the cane?" Cuddy had a little more faith in Tritter's detective skills than House had.

House furrowed his brow. He didn't have a quick answer for this. "The witnesses will bring it up. He'll have to accept the alibi."

"Oh, right, because in Houseland, everything always turns out for the best. That's why you're such a happy go lucky kind of guy. It all makes sense now."

"I need more pills." House held out a hand.

"I just gave you some."

"Yeah, but talking to you gives me a headache." He waited another minute before diving into her robe pocket. His hand quickly wrapped around a bottle and he pulled it out. "You didn't even put up a fight."

"I'm tired House." She just wanted him to leave. When it was clear he had no intention of doing so, she figured she might as well keep talking. "How did you get him to change his mind, about helping his son?"

"I didn't." House popped a couple pills into his mouth.

"But he wouldn't even go see his son when you woke him up, he'd rather go get a steak."

"Hoagie."

"What?"

"He wanted a Hoagie, not a steak."

"He asked for a steak."

"He changed his mind. He wanted to go to a place in Atlantic City that made the best Hoagie's he'd ever had. What good would going to see his son have done anyway?"

"It figures you'd say that."

"Not everybody is all sensitive and caring like you and Wilson. Some of us are selfish bastards who want a Hoagie."

"Did he get his Hoagie?" She stopped herself from smiling at his comment.

"Yeah. Wilson made him one." House looked at her thoughtfully. "What would you do, if you had one day to do whatever you wanted before going back into a vegetative state?"

"I don't know." She looked scared by the question. She'd been thinking about it all day, ever since House woke the man.

"Sure you do. You have one day to be alive, what are you going to do? Visit your father?"

"I…"

"Didn't think so." House smirked. She tried to pass herself off as all familial and caring, but he knew her better than that.

"What would you do?" She hoped to deflect the question.

"I'm not telling." He'd probably just sit in a quiet room and play music, but she didn't need to know that.

"Well then, neither am I."

"That's so childish." House closed his eyes for a moment. He was getting tired.

"Can I go to sleep now?" She was slipping further and further into the couch.

"Don't let me stop you." House picked up a book and started flipping through the pages. "I didn't know you liked Clive Cussler."

"I don't." She pulled the book from his hand. "I just started reading it."

"I'm starting to think you don't want me here." He watched as she slammed the book back onto the coffee table.

"Wow, you are perceptive."

"So, you want me to leave then?" He was still showing no sign of getting up.

"I wanted you to not show up at all."

"Well, that wasn't going to happen." House smirked.

Cuddy rolled her eyes before shutting them again. House waited a moment to see if they would open again. When they didn't, he got up and left, taking the bottle of pills with him.

4


End file.
